Blood in the Water
by EbonySouls
Summary: When a mysterious force begins to infect the water and lake in Republic City, Korra and the Team head to the Swamp Tribe to ask for the Elder's help. However, they soon find the tribe is under attack by the Northern Water Tribe and decide to help. During their time there, they discover Tahno, a member of the tribe, who warns them not all is as it seems. Cover belongs to Sarapsys.
1. Prologue

Republic City has never seemed so dead and useless to me as it does today. Despite the gorgeous night light that shimmers in the lakes reflection, as well as the joy of knowing Amon is dead and gone, I still feel empty. Ever since I lost my bending, I haven't known what to do with myself. Both Ming and Shaozu, my old team mates, have been able to deal with their bending lose, yet I haven't. See, unlike them I was raised around my bending, it was my life from the beginning. To them, bending was just something cool they could do and entertain with, but to me, it was freedom from my home.

But naturally now that my bending is lost, I was called back by the tribe elder; ordered to return for my own safety. Knowing full well I'd have to deal with the pain of seeing the rest of my tribe bending everyday, as well as being surrounded in a village practically on water, I steel my growing despair and without so much as a goodbye to my friends, I went back home.


	2. Chapter 1

Air-Temple Island was peaceful as usual. It was early morning and none of the children were awake, nor had Tenzin fully woken up yet either. Mako, Bolin and Asami had already gotten up, preparing for the day of work, in Mako's case, or just getting ready for an ordinary. Korra was also already up. She'd been awake much longer than the others. She had found it difficult to fall asleep last night, so decided to watch the City from the islands shore in the late hours of the night, all the way up to dawn. Peacefully, she bended the water on the shore, pushing it gently in time with the small tide.

However, the water had felt, strangely, heavy. Over the last couple of days, water had seemed to become heavier; more difficult to bend. Sure, controlling Water was far different than say a weightless element like Fire or Air, but the force needed to bend this particular element seemed much greater than before, even Earth felt lighter. Which is never a good sign.

It's been a entire month since Amon was defeated, but the City had yet to return to normal. The loss of so many benders because of this one man, it put a strain on the City. People who only knew bending felt lost without it, incomplete. What would people like the Energy Factory employees do, or even the competitors and pro-benders like the Wolfbats? Look what happened to Tahno.

Korra had realised that after a certain amount of time, her Energy bending seemed incapable of curing the effects of Amon's Blood Bending. Lin Bei Fong had been a close call, her bending taken away just in the right time elapse to allow Korra to fix it. The others however, they had not been so lucky. People's lives had been ruined by Amon, never to return to normal. And although Korra knew that she had won the battle, she felt like she had lost the war.

_Urg, why can't I fall asleep? It's not like I had a nightmare like before, so why can't I? This is annoying! And I've got training today too!_

"Korra?" A voice called from behind Korra so few metres away. Korra looked up from her seat by the waters edge, before turning to see Tenzin tiredly looking at her.

"Why are you awake so early?" He asked with a tone of concern, although his yawn at the end highlighted his drowsiness.

"Couldn't sleep, and no, before you ask, it wasn't a nightmare." Korra replied barely. Tenzin could see the bags under her eyes, as well as their redness. _She really hasn't gotten any sleep. _Cautiously, Tenzin walked over to the tried teen, until becoming level with her. He looked out into the water, noticing the darker colour it seemed to be.

"Although I can see your tired Korra, we will still have to continue your Air-bending training. You have still yet to master the finer points."

"Yeah Tenzin, I know." Although Tenzin didn't exactly mind being referred to by his name, he could sense the possible rudeness in which Korra generally used it. Sighing, he walked back up to the Temple before taking one last look at the lake.

It really does seem a different colour.


	3. Chapter 2

"Mornin' Korra. Wow, what happened to you?" Bolin's voice called as the door slid open to reveal Bolin and Asami, both looking at Korra with mixed expressions of surprise and amusement.

The girl in question was currently sitting at the breakfast table, water dripping from her chin and clothes, along with a trail of foot -shaped water imprints on the floor panels, leading to her currently position. Her expression was one of non-amusement, lips sticking out and sulking before begrudgingly turning to her friends.

"Freak water accident"

"Let's just say Korra's face became b.b.b.f.f with the tap this morning!" Shouted Ikki from her spot across the table, in her ever quick and slightly annoying cheery tone, especially this early in the morning.

"Although we can't seem to find out why the tap burst water randomly. It doesn't look broke" Said Jinora sitting next to her younger sister, at first amused but her face faded more into a curious expression.

Korra had not had a fun morning. She'd hadn't slept all night, her bending seemed to be 'heavy', accidents with water just seemed to keep happening and now she was soaking wet, all before 10 in the morning. Pema had been the one to first witness a tap randomly burst out with water, while Korra had been trying to figure out why it hadn't been working before; Tenzin had clearly noted that she'd be having problems with said water, and now Ikki had something to gossip about. This was defiantly not a good stat to the day.

"Ah well, sometimes water does get stuck in taps. Maybe you need a new sink?" Bolin suggested to Pema, who was reorganising a fruit bowl that had been knocked by Meelo when he came in mere minutes ago.

"Maybe. Seems strange though, Korra couldn't seem to find something wrong with it. If there was a blockage, she would have been able to sense it, I would of thought." Pema mussed, more to herself than anyone else.

"Perhaps the metal blocks water."

"No-" The calm voice of Tenzin breaks in, walking into the room from the open door.

"Korra can't sense metal, as she never learnt how to bend or manipulate it, as of such, meaning metal can technically block her sensing water, unless it was a extremely large mass of water."

"That makes sense" Chirped Asami, picking an apple from the bowl, motioning a 'thank-you' to Pema as she did, before turning back to Korra, still sulking.

"Hey Korra, do you want to go to the City today for some shopping? I need to pick up some stuff anyway" Korra looked up from her seat, seeing the rivalling woman standing by the door, ready to leave. Sighing, Korra gets up, muttering a 'give-me-a-chance-to-change' before wandering off to her rooms, leaving the family to happily sit and eat breakfast.

Once reaching her rooms, Korra goes in and changes out of her damp clothes, which by chance hadn't sunk in through to her underwear. Quickly changing and throwing the damp clothes onto the laundry pile, she decides to make a quick trip to the bathroom to wash her face properly, in a attempt to freshen-up. Reaching the small room, she steps in and musses with her tangled hair slightly, noting some of the strands hanging low or in odd directions, before attempting to pull them back into order with her hands. Seeing it's not working, she gives a irritated groan and instead decides to twist the tap, in need for serious warm water. Snatching a flannel hanging from the side, she soaks it in the water before bringing it up to her face, closing her eyes and taking a moment to relish the warm tingle. A content sigh later, she moves to repeat the action when she notices the tap water is tinted brown. Confused, she stops the running water and attempts to be rid of the dirty liquid in the sinks drain. But, as the water in the sink rises Korra realises the water is coming up from the sink's drain, something that made no sense at all. Placing a hand to the underside of the sink, she actually notices a pulse like feel created by the water, clearly under a lot of pressure and, most likely, there was a lot of actual water coming up.

A shout vaguely recognisable as Tenzin's can be heard in the background and after one last glance at the sink, Korra rushes off to find her Mentor.

"Tenzin, what's going on?" After running to the dining room in hope of finding Tenzin there, she see's him outside with Pema and the kids, looking down at the surrounding lake. Something was for sure, the lake wasn't the pretty blue colour anymore. It had now become a dull, murky brown shade, with bundles of leaves and plants floating atop the mass of liquid. Meer moments later, Bolin and Asami come running back from the Isle's docks, noticing the water's change of colour and had come to check on the others, before falling silent when finally reaching them. The whole group stare out into the lake so more, until the small voice of Meelo pipes up;

"What's going on dad?"


End file.
